QUOTES: Evansville 85, Fresno State 77
12/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Rodney Terry, Fresno State Head Coach
On having to downsize…
"They have strengths and we have strengths. They played to their strengths. They made us have to down size to them as opposed to us getting to use our size and make them have to size up with us. We had to make some adjustments and move Paul (Watson) down to the 4. There were basically four guards out there. We haven't played a lot of teams this year where we had to downsize and play four guards. We've been able to keep our bigger line up out there for the longer part of the game, but today we had to downsize. I think that our guys battled through it. Even with not starting the second half the way we needed to start the second half it was still a one or two possession game all the way down the stretch. At some point you have to get a stop and they got a couple key stops against us."
"We just couldn't get key stops, when we needed to get key stops. When we did get stops we didn't capitalize on the other end, in terms of free throws or finishing a play offensively."
On why Evansville had a run at the start of the second half…
"If I had that answer for you maybe we wouldn't have been down by ten. They came out scoring off the bat in the first four minutes. They came out with a really good first play and got a good lob. We had a couple of good looks on the offensive end and we weren't able to take advantage of those. I don't have an answer for you about why we didn't have the energy in the first four minutes of the second half that we had to finish the half with."
On Evansville this year compared to last year…
"They're an older team. This is the kind of team we'll play in the first round of the NCAA tournament. It's a team that has chance to win their conference and I think we have a chance to win our conference. Obviously nothing is going to be given to you, you're going to have to earn it. I like their team and I like our team. They do what they at a very high level. They know who they are and they don't try to do things they aren't capable of doing. They lead the country in assists. They share the basketball and make it hard for their opponents to concentrate on one player. They're a difficult team to defend."
On Edgidiju Mockevicius…
"We knew coming into this game that he does a good job of playing off of those guys. We did a good job of making him take difficult shots in the second half but he was shooting high percentage shots."
On Terell Carter II…
"He did a nice job. He did a lot of nice things in terms of making Mockevicius take difficult shots to start the first half. Obviously, anytime you get one of your bigs in foul trouble it causes some problems for you. This was going to be a game of who put their strength on whom."
Senior guard Julien Lewis
On suffering a hard-fought loss:
"We knew going into the game that we had a mind and focus that this was a high-level game and this was a big game for us to win and compete at the highest level. We did that at the highest level, but we let some possession get away from us and have to get back to work."
On getting the hot-hand in the second half scoring a season-high 12 points:
"I was just taking the shot they gave me and working on the stuff the defense gave me. It is stuff we work on in practice working on my mid-range game and I am going to continue to do that at a high level."
On defending Asheville's D.J. Balentine
"He gave me a lot of looks on curl screens, down screens, flair screens, and moved a lot without the ball and stayed engaged into the offense with his teammates. He is a very unselfish player, just like Marvelle Harris is for us, and they work hard at what they do."
On preparing for Pacific Union next Sunday
"A lot of guys are not going home over break and take this as a big challenge coming into conference play and Union next Sunday and then UNLV to start conference play."
On Evansville starting the second half on a 10-0 run
"It is something Coach Terry always says we did not have a good motor coming into the second half and they ran some good plays offensively. They are a good team and they do what they do very well."
On letting an opportunity slip away
"Yeah, and it hurts a lot, but we have bigger fish to fry coming up. We just have to get our minds back for next Sunday."
On the difference today between winning and losing
"I think we need to stay engaged more into the game. If we stay more engaged into the game and talk a lot, we are a very-high level team to guard and on defense. The lack of focus we came out with and the way we started the second half hurt us a little bit, but we fought back from adversity and we came together."
